Farah Wins His Second Gold Medal For Britain, In The 5,000m

Mo Farah of Great Britain celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win gold ahead of Dejen Gebremeskel of Ethiopia and Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa of Kenya. Farah, who has become a celebrity in Britain, is the sixth man to win both the 5,000m and 10,000m distances at one Olympics.
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Mo Farah of Great Britain celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win gold ahead of Dejen Gebremeskel of Ethiopia and Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa of Kenya. Farah, who has become a celebrity in Britain, is the sixth man to win both the 5,000m and 10,000m distances at one Olympics.

Michael Steele/Getty Images

British runner Mo Farah has won the men's 5,000 meters, sending Olympic Stadium into a frenzy. His time of 13:41.66 barely edged Dejen Gebremeskel of Ethiopia. American Bernard Lagat came in fourth, while Galen Rupp finished seventh.

Farah is now the sixth man in Olympic history to have won both the 5,000m and 10,000m events at the same Summer Games. He emerged at the front of the pack 700 meters from the finish, and held on to stay ahead of Gebremeskel.

"Unbelievable. Everybody knew he was the favorite. I knew it. All 15 runners knew it," Lagat said after the race, according to the AP. "We were going to run against the favorite guy, he was the greatest of all. The crowd helped him. He ran 100 percent and they added another 10. So you had a guy running at 110 percent."

U.S. runner Lopez Lomong, whose story of recovery from life as one of the Lost Boys of Sudan we've previously discussed here on NPR, finished 10th, at 13:48.19.

In addition to his past, Lomong also made headlines earlier this year when he blew away the field at a 5,000 meters race in Oregon — only to realize he had one more lap to go. He counted them right Saturday, but couldn't get onto the podium.

As he prepared for the race yesterday, Lomong tweeted, "Tomorrow I run for Olympic gold. I also run to help children live their dreams."